More is More

My November Stampin’ Classes are this week, so I wanted to give you a little preview of one of the three projects we’ll be creating.  I’ve been wanting to do skinny notepads for a really long time.  I’ve always loved the ones Michelle Wooderson creates and I finally got motivated for this class.  I have two versions and since I’m holding two sessions of class, we’ll do one at each session.

Aren’t they cute?  They would make a great little party favor or gift for co-workers, neighbors, etc…or just for yourself to keep in your car or purse during the busy holiday season.

I was tempted to order the new notepads from PTI, but honestly just didn’t get around to it.  I went to Staples and bought a 12 pack of Jr. Legal pads and had their copy department cut the whole stack in half.  When all was said and done including tax and the cutting fee, the skinny pads cost me about .44 each for a total of 24 and they are double the thickness of the ones PTI sells…so I’m happy.

In class we’ll be making 3 projects and I’ll share another one of them tomorrow. 

Registration for class is just $12.

Thursday November 12 at 12:30 in the afternoon – this class is sold out, but let me know if you want in as I might have one spot open up this afternoon.

-OR-

Friday evening November 13 at 7:00 pm  – I have a few spots still open for this session and will take registration through Wednesday morning at 10 am when I will begin cutting and prepping.

Please call or e-mail me if you’d like to come.  I’d love to have you!

WooHoo!  The time has finally come when we can share sneak peeks of the upcoming Stamp a Sweet Impression release.  Friday January 2nd will mark the most extensive release in SASI history so strap on your seatbelts!  My sneek peek project for today is from A Year of Sweets 2 (yes that means there’s more than 1 of these sets!) and it’s a page from the brand new perpetual calendar that will also be available at Taylored Expressions.  I’m especially excited about the perpetual calendar because I helped to design it.  *bouncin’ in my chair*

There is a blank panel that can be decorated for each individual month on the calendar and that panel folds down to reveal a new one as the month changes.  The thing that had always bothered me about other blank perpetual calendars I have seen was that it tends to be difficult to design for a long skinny panel.  I wondered for a long time why someone didn’t make one with a smaller, easier to decorate panel on top…and now here it is!!  Can I get a *WOO HOO*?

The scenes in the A Year of Sweets series are designed to fit nicely on this calendar as well being the perfect size for cardmaking.  You could easily stamp the scene image directly onto the calendar panel, but I chose to do just a little bit of layering this time.  There is a hole already punched in the top of each panel and you could simply hang the calendar on a nail through that hole, but I  added a flower eyelet (retired SU) as well as some ribbon so the calendar could hang from a knob.  That’s my stamp room wall in the backround.  I apologize for the picture quality as our Canon Rebel is on the fritz and I’m using our point and shoot which I’m not as familiar with.

Perpetual calendars make great gifts any time of year since everyone has birthdays, anniversaries and other important family rememberances to keep track of.  You’re going to want to pick up several of these when they become available on Friday.

When I started this project I thought about what I could do that might be fun and different.  I’ve been using Copics so much lately, that I thought maybe I should try watercolor instead…and then it hit me…why not drag out my Twinkling H2O’s that I haven’t used in ages?  I love Twinkling H2O’s and I just wish you could really see the shimmer – there’s just no way to capture it in a photo.  If you’ve never used them, they are little cakes of super shimmery/twinkly watercolors.  You simply take off the lids and place the little pots onto a tray or sheet of wax paper and mist them with water.  Wait a couple of minutes to let them soften up and then paint with them using a watercolor brush.  You can also mix colors on a palette or a CD.

I stamped the image on Taylor’s brand new awesome Choice cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with the Twinking H2O’s.  I stamped the image a 2nd time and colored just the flowers and butterfly and punched them out with circle punches to be added to the bottom portion of the calendar.  I also painted with Twinkling H2O Cherry Sorbet around the entire outside edge of the bottom portion of the calendar using Eclipse masking tape for a clean line.  The cuppie was also masked with Eclipse so I could sponge the sky with my SU cloud template and Bashful Blue ink.  Then I also sponged on a bit of TH2O’s.

Here’s a close up of the scene.

Here are the layering measurments for your reference in case you want to decorate one of these calendars in a simlar fashion –

Image layer – 3-1/4 x 2-5/8

Black layer – 3-3/8 x 2-3/4

Pink Layer – 3-5/8 x 3-1/2

Project Recipe:

Stamps – A Year of Sweets 2 (just one stamp is used here)

Cardstock – TE Choice White, Basic Black, Pink Prism from Christmas Key Ingredients

Ink – Memento Tuxedo Black and SU Bashful Blue

Other – yellow flower eyelet (SU retired), dark pink Kaiser Craft rhinestone flowers, SU cloud template (retired), circle punches, teal ribbon.

Twinking H2O colors – mystic blue, sky blue, key lime, moss, yellow rose, orange peel, ruby red, pink azalea, jasmine, cherry sorbet.

I can hardly wait to see the Sneak Peeks from the rest of the Bakers Dozen! Let’s hop over to Taylor’s blog to see what she has today and from there we can visit the rest of the BD team as well!  I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another sneak peek so be sure to come back!  And then the big release is January 2nd at midnight (which is Thursday at 9:00pm for those of us on the West Coast).  So put us in your schedule now so you don’t miss a thing!

Tuesday night was Happy Turkey Dinner with my PACT group.  PACT stands for Prayer Always Changes Things and it’s a small group of women who came together over 5 years ago to meet twice a month to support one another in prayer.   I so love these ladies and am so thankful for them.  Every year we get together for a potluck Christmas dinner and to exchange little Christmas gifts – it’s always one of my favorite nights of the year.

This year I made monogram note card sets for everyone.  I had actually purchased some of the supplies (note card and envelope sets and the clear boxes all from PTI) last year, but just didn’t get the sets made.  I was determined to finish them this year and I spent a good portion of last weekend on them.  I dreaded getting started because I felt uninspired and it felt like a daunting task, but of course once I did get started I had a blast making them!

I began by going through my designer papers and choosing patterns I wanted to use.  Then I got out all of my JustRite Stamper supplies (from Taylored Expressions) as well as SU Lovely Letters for the monograms and then I just designed and made one set at a time.  I completed 6 sets.  Each set has 6 cards and envelopes.  Four of those sets were for PACT and I’ll show you those today.  I still need to photograph the remaining two sets so I’ll show you those later.

Here is the set for Kathy.

The dp is from the SU hostess paper pack.  Colors are Real Red and Tempting Turquoise.

Here is the set for Maggie.

The dp here is also SU and the colors are Rose Red and Black.

Here is the set for Darla.

The dp here is from one of my 6×6 pads…I think it’s a Basic Gray pattern. The frame is an SU stamp set – Frames with a Flourish.  Colors are Wild Wasabi and Brocade Blue.

Here’s the set for Nancy.

The do here is Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie and colors are Chocolate Chip and Cameo Coral.  Monogram is heat embossed in white.

The photos aren’t the best since I had to take them late at night just before wrapping everything up to give.  I sure wish I’d taken a group shot of all of them together, but I hope you get the idea here.  Working with those PTI notecard sets was a dream – so quick and easy.  And those plastic card boxes – wow!  The sets looked so professional when I was finished!  I had originally intended to add a belly band to each set, but they looked so nice just in the box that I didn’t want to add anything.  I also stamped the matching monogram on the flap of the envelopes in a single coordinating color rather than two-toned as on most of the cards.

For most of the monograms I colored them with SU markers to get the two colors.  I wanted to keep th ecards flat and easy to mail so I managed to make them without any ribbon (and shockingly my head did not explode as you may have expected!)  I used Marvy and SU punches.  I still think it’s so much faster and easier than having to use Nestie circles for a project like this.  I’m still wanting a circle punch that is exactly the right size for the JR monograms!  But I think these turned out great even using the punches I had on hand.  I have to give a special thank you to my pal Sharon Harnist who bought the Threading Water punch at Hobby Lobby and shipped it to me after I insanely put it back on the shelf during my Hobby Lobby shopping trip in Texas.  That punch came in so handy for these sets!

I’m feeling a little behind on all my holiday stuff as I had lots planned to accomplish yesterday, but ended up getting nothing done!  I broke a tooth on Monday and had to go to the dentist yesterday for a crown prep.  I love my dentist (been going to him for almost 35 years), but even so it was NOT a fun day.  When I got home in the afternoon it was pouring down rain.  Curt is home on vaction so we snuggled up on the couch and watched some shows we had on the dvr.  I decided to just forget about my to-do list.  Today is my last day to work before two weeks off and tonight we have a potluck with the church choir (where Curt sings…I can’t carry a tune in a bucket).  So it will be tomorrow before I get back on track with that list!

I hope things are going smoothly for all your holiday prep!  I’ll be back tomorrow with a sample for the Friday TECC.  Thanks for stopping by!

Here’s  the final piece of the Bible Verse Gift Set I made for my friend Ruth’s birthday.  This wooden plaque was given to me by friend TexasJodyLynn when she was visiting California with family a year or so ago.  She picked it up at Hobby Lobby (which we don’t have here in CA.)  I thought it was such a sweet gift and I knew it would be so fun to decorate.  I decided to pay it forward by by making it for a gift rather than keeping it for myself.  If you want a slightly larger view you can click on this thumbnail.    I used Plaid Royal Coat adhesive to attach the Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie dp to the wood letters.  Then I inked all the edges with Versamagic Jumbo Java ink. Then I just added some ribbon, a chipboard heart (cut with my Cuttlebug), some fun rhinestones (Zva Creative in pink and KaiserCraft flower), plus some Zva Creative felt flowers. (Zva Creative from TE and KaiserCraft from eP)

Here’s the entire set of 12 verse journaling cards, clippie holder, tin and plaque. Click the thumbnail to see it larger.   If you’d like to see and read about the individual projects you can click on *Divine Design* just under the title of this post and it should take you to a listing of all the individual entries.  Thanks for sharing in this with me throughout the year.

Ruth’s birthday was yesterday and even though the set was finished a few days ago, I have yet to get it in the mail.  I’m off to work today, but I will definitley get it out tomorrow.  I still need to show you the birthday card I made for her.  I’ll try to get that up over the weekend.

This has been a wonderful challenge to participate in this year.  Be sure to subscribe to this thread on SCS so you’ll get updates on the 2009 version of the challenge and please come play along!

Happy Monday!  After weeks and weeks of being non-stop busy nothing could stop me from a three hour nap yesterday.  It must have been just what I needed since today I’ve been better able to focus and get a bunch of little chores done around the house fairly quickly.  I swear every horizontal surface in our house had something on it and I couldn’t take it anymore.  Does that ever happen to you?  Anyway after doing a quick clean sweep of the kitchen, bathroom, lving room and dining room I decided to take a time out to create a quick little project I had in my head.

I got the JustRite Baking Ensemble recently and the first project that came to mind was one using Hershey Kisses.  When I was at Taylor’s over the weekend I picked up some clear acetate favor boxes.  They are available at TE 10 for $7.50  – click here.  My goodness they are just the cutest things!  I’ve seen Taylor’s Snowman Poop with them in the past and the possibilities are almost endless for party favors, place settings and other little gifts.

I simply wrapped it with some satin edged organdy red ribbon and tied bows on both sides.  I stamped the JustRite elements separately – for the outer ring I inked the image with Versamark and then Classic Real red ink and stamped on Shimmer White cardstock and heat embossed with clear ep.  For the center I inked the image with White Craft ink and and stamped on Real Red cardstock and then heat embossed with some ep I bought several years ago at a local LSS – it’s called Christmas Jewels and it’s a white powder with some silver and gold flecks mixed in – really pretty!  Each element was then cut out with Nestabilities Classic Circles – Large.  The two pieces were glued together and the badge was then adhered to the box with mini glue dots.  Super duper simple.

Two things to be aware of if you do order these boxes – first: there is a protective coating on both sides of the acetate that needs to be peeled off and second: putting the box together does require one small piece of Sticky Strip.  I kept thinking I was doing something wrong when the box wouldn’t stay together without any adhesive.  LOL!

Thanks for stopping by.  I need to get back to my endless to-do list!

Ever since the SU Convention in the Summer I’ve been seeing photos here and there of bookmarks made with Hodgepodge Hardware.  I thought they were really cool and decided they would be a great project for my November Christmas projects class.   I was excited that SU has offered a bulk buy to Demonstrators of one of the hardware pieces I would need to do the bookmarks – and it’s in the Vanilla finish which I just love.  After asking some questions of people who were at Convention I got a better idea of how the bookmarks are made and I set to work creating one myself using the info I had gleaned.  The first sample I made was *ok*, but when I actually put it in a book the image was upside down.  But I knew pretty much how I wanted to make my next one.

My friend Lisa has a birthday coming up on Saturday and since she’s an avid reader the bookmark seemed like the perfect little gift.  Here’s what I came up with

And here’s what it looks like in a book.

So I was meeting Lisa at a Bible Study yesterday afternoon and planned to take the bookmark and a birthday card…but I was trying to think of a quick and pretty way to package the bookmark.  I decided to combine the card and bookmark into one and I think it turned out really pretty!

I had to snap these pictures really quickly as I was on my way out the door so the color is not the best.  I used Baja Blue, Old Olive, Cameo Coral and Very Vanilla.  The vanilla and coral panels were embossed with my cuttlebug.  Card is 4.25″ square so when I put it in a standard envelope there was room for the ribbon hanging down.  I cut 2 slits on the inside of the card for the ribbon to slip through and hold the bookmark in place.  Here’s a photo of the inside of the card.

I whipped up the card super quick in the morning morning (maybe about 20 minutes or less) and now that I have the bookmark figured out they will be very quick and easy to make.

I’ll be back tonight with my project for the SASI release at 9pm PST (midnight EST).  In the meantime, the Bakers Dozen Rotating Team members – along with Taylor – have more sneak peeks for us all to enjoy.

Carol Halvorson

Donna Baker

Jen del Muro

Laurie Schmidlin

Sharon Harnist

Terri Dodd

And don’t forget – you have until 6pm PST this evening to enter the drawing on the SASI blog for our SASI Sweet Treats give-away!  Don’t be shy – we want everyone to enter!  Thanks for stopping by – see you tonight I hope!

A week without stamping???  AAACCCKKKKKK!  I can’t remember the last time I went a whole week without stamping!  I even missed Taylor’s Sketch Challenge today (my apologies to the Cupcake Crew!)  And I have a good sized box from Stampin’ Up! (all MINE) that’s been sitting untouched the whole week!  Tomorrow is World Card Making Day and I promise to be back to post a card tomorrow!

It’s been a long week for sure, but lots of good things have come of it.  I will share photos of the bedroom make-over as soon as I can get some taken.  We’re about 80% done in there and it’s already gorgeous!  Curtains are the only major thing we’re missing and I’m crossing my fingers I might find some tomorrow.  Then there’s a whole list of little details to be completed.

Yesterday I helped at church with a western themed dinner for the Seniors.  My friend Denise was in charge of table decorations and I helped her.  They turned out really cute!

It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but we took mini hay bales (from Michael’s) and stuck in a bouquet of silk sunflowers wrapped with a bandana and then added a small cowboy hat.  Peanuts were scattered all over the table and lemonade was served in mason jars.  The menu was BBQ beef sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans and apple or pumpkin pie.  After decorating I moved to the kitchen and helped with the food service.  Tickets were only available to folks 70 and better.  We had about 60 people and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I loved being involved, but I was certainly exhausted when it was over.  I’ll definitley help again at the next one in the Spring.

There’s lots of Stampin’ Up! excitement for October!  The new Holiday Mini Catalog is now available AND in celebration of SU’s 20th birthday we have a Birthday Sale!  Spend $20 on regular priced mechandise and you may add as many of the sale sets to you order as you like.

You can never have enough birthday sets!  Be sure to check them out!  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you get to stamp tomorrow.  If you need some inspiration check out the SCS home page – there’s a link there to their WCD Challenge thread.  There will be a bunch of challenges to play.  Enjoy!